


What Did I Know

by 3amepiphany



Series: Total Eclipse of the Heart [7]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: M/M, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-25
Updated: 2019-06-25
Packaged: 2020-05-19 09:05:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19353835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/3amepiphany/pseuds/3amepiphany
Summary: Nixing the silverware and using his hands to eat at the bit of charred meat while he propped himself up awkwardly, he asked around a mouthful and in his accented English, “Are you all like that?”“Like…?”“Whatever that was. Whatever he was. What I was.”“It runs in the family, yes.”





	What Did I Know

**Author's Note:**

> For Samy. Your support is appreciated so much.
> 
> *I've marked this as mature but chose no warnings as there aren't really any descriptions of violence this go-round. if anyone needs me to tag for something please let me know and I'll be happy to do so.

It wasn’t until much, much, _much_ later that Leo admitted that walking into the apartment that morning and seeing the blood everywhere, following it down the hallway and learning what it led to… it all definitely felt like something out of a horror film.

“He got you good, didn’t he,” he heard Leo say.

Otabek lay there in the tub, shivering hard, his breathing stuttered and uneven, and he was only just vaguely aware of what was happening.

“Really wouldn’t be the first time we had to worry about losing the cleaning deposit. I think the excuse we gave the last time was that our pet cat had brought in a bird or a squirrel or something.” The tone of his voice was as gentle as it always was, but it was definitely laced with annoyance more than it was worry. “But it’s okay. We can get this cleaned up and go from there. Come on. Otabek really couldn’t even feel it when Leo took it upon himself to help clean the large wound J.J. had left him with and the various other nips and scratches that could be found on him. He watched the water that was pooling up around him from the faucet turn from pink to red.

He didn’t remember much except that he had been terrified, exhausted and confused, and all he could manage to do was hide in the bathroom. Everything hurt - his joints barely wanted to move and all of his muscles felt as if they were on fire and he was fairly certain he’d passed out for a while before Leo had gotten back home and found him there and J.J. still sleeping in the mess that was his own bedroom.

After some time and care Leo managed to get the bite mark cleaned and staunched again and he was looking for the first aid materials they’d bought previously under the sink to bandage it up when J.J. groggily appeared in the doorway in his underwear. Otabek was coherent enough, though now he was entirely upset that he couldn’t hide any lower in the tub or simply disappear, and he watched as Leo stood up and placed himself in front of J.J., who also wasn’t quite himself - he wasn’t that loud, egregious, early morning riser he usually is. This was someone who knew they’d had a bad night or at least had inflicted one upon others, and was very sorry for it. But Leo wasn’t having it. “Dude, this is so much more than eating someone else’s food out of the fridge, or breaking something of theirs in a house party, or being late on the rent or any other crappy thing we could worry about as roommates. This is. This is twice now.”

“Did we get a noise complaint?”

Over the edge of the bathtub, Otabek watched them both shift from foot to foot as they talked. “Not that I’m aware.” Leo backed J.J. out into the hallway, and he watched them dance over the mess of blood, and he strained to listen as they headed back out into the front room. 

“No one came over this morning to ask about it?”

“If they did I was sleeping, but honestly, it was a Friday night. They know we get rowdy just watching hockey any other time. Where were _you_?”

“St. Bruno. I told you last week that’s where I’d be. Hell, J.J., I invited you.” There was a bit of a pause before he could hear Leo sigh heavily. “J.J. You can’t... this isn’t right.”

“You’re still here. You could have left. Are you worried he’ll leave?”

“Right now I’m mostly worried that he’s not in shock. Can’t really take him to the hospital, can we? Did you start planning this when I said I was going out to the lake?” No answer. “J.J.” Still no answer. There was the sound of paper rustling, and then the sound of it hitting something.

“The fuck, Leo?”

“Twice now.”

“Hit me again, make it even, then.” There was the same sound again, followed by J.J. cursing.

“Look, I’m calling Alain. Get your shit together today, you’re buying a carpet cleaner. Not renting. Buying. You’re buying a new bookcase. You’re building it yourself. You’re cleaning this mess up, J.J. I’m calling Alain - not to come and clean it up for you but to be here for _him_ , alright? Don’t look at me like that, I’ve got the wherewithal to at least get out to the lake for a day or two and you’re just using it to do what? Flex on your dad? I don’t know what I’m doing well enough to help. You obviously don’t know at all. It stops, J.J., please... Did he at least eat? The kitchen seems cleaner than last month.”

“I mean. I left food out, but I don’t think he did. I know _I_ did.”

Leo appeared again in the doorway to the bathroom, a rolled-up newspaper in hand. “Did you eat at all? Do you remember eating?” Otabek couldn’t recall.

And when Alain arrived the atmosphere in the apartment changed completely. J.J stopped moping about while he cleaned and was ten times more eager to help - not that he wasn’t keen on it, he admitted, it was just that he wasn’t sure what he was really allowed to be doing at that point. But it definitely didn’t include getting Otabek to his own bedroom so he could get some legitimate sleep in.

And sleep he did. He had barely thanked Alain for showing up before he was out like a lamp. He woke up again a few hours later, when he could smell food cooking. Steak. It was maddening. But he couldn’t exactly sit up. The whole of his backside and his thigh lit up in pain as he moved, looking for his phone. It was there, on the nightstand, plugged in and charging. He made a mental note to ask after his laptop, and texted Leo. Alain arrived after a few minutes, explaining they’d pulled out the grill from the little storage closet on the patio and gave it some purpose.

Nixing the silverware and using his hands to eat at the bit of charred meat while he propped himself up awkwardly, he asked around a mouthful and in his accented English, “Are you all like that?”

“Like…?”

“Whatever that was. Whatever he was. What I was.”

“It runs in the family, yes.”

“I’m like this now.”

“...Jean-Jacques has been a little too eager to get out from under mine and Nathalie’s shadow. It’s been like this a while.” The older man took his near ever-present hat off to run a hand through his greyed hair. He sighed. “He’s a good boy, but he’s also an idiot. Next month, we’re taking all of you kids with us. We’re going to Saint-Gabriel-de-Brandon. Give you a good night and some secluded space to get out and run on the beach, stretch your legs. Get used to them. Learn some things you can’t without the experience. Goes for J.J., too. He’s still got quite a bit to learn.”

The thought of a beast like J.J. on the shores of Lake Maskinongé in the moonlight and not attracting any attention was harder to swallow than the gristle Otabek suddenly found himself chewing on despite being his least favorite part of any cut of meat.

It wasn’t at all what he imagined, though. The Leroy’s were well-versed in changing without the moon. In fact, as he, J.J., and Leo followed the suburban up into the village in J.J.’s coupe, he was very surprised to see that his roommate’s younger siblings had already morphed into full wolf form - and were bouncing around the back of the suburban like a pair of house dogs. Big house dogs. Park service didn’t think twice about them, only to remind them to keep them on leashes while visiting. From the backseat, Otabek leaned forward to ask J.J. about it. “You’ll be able to, too, eventually. Just takes some practice.” Leo couldn’t do it yet. He still relied on the moon, and as Nathalie told them later, there was nothing wrong with that, especially if one wasn’t raised as part of a pack from birth. Or even if they weren’t part of one if they became a werewolf later on in life. She did say it was good to have goals to work towards, though, which both Leo and Otabek could understand easily.

“What happens if I change tomorrow, and go the other route?” Otabek asked. The monstrous route, he meant.

“We’ll see what happens,” she said with a smile. “Alain and I are here, and J.J. answers to us regardless. We’re here to help all of you. We do want him to succeed in leading his own pack, after all.”

They had set up camp along one of the further back roads along the lake, way out of the possibility of other campers wandering past them, and well away from one of the hiking loops. The three roommates agreed to be chaste on this visit, for everones’ sake, though that didn’t stop them from piling about each other in their sleeping bags the first night, full from dinner and warmed from the campfire and entertained by how J.J.’s younger siblings played about so energetically, fetching softballs and bringing back ridiculously large branches, and obviously having the time of their lives. The last month definitely had brought him a fair amount of contemplation over this being his lot now, and it came with scathing bouts of anger and confusion. What was he to do with this? He lived the night life, so that wasn’t going to change, and it would be easy enough to book gigs around this, but that was compartmentalizing at its finest. He still had to worry about everything else. Very literally everything else.

He learned what to expect this time, and it definitely helped just knowing that alone - it got his disorientation under control quickly, even if the pain levels hadn’t seemed to change. Of course, not having J.J. pacing around him predatorily, full of adrenaline and nipping at him as he sought a hiding place while none of his limbs seemed to want to work and all of his senses had gone haywire also made for a better situation to manage. But just as before Otabek was left exhausted and afraid. He wasn’t a gangly, terrifying creature that was worthy of a horror film thankfully; he allowed himself the time to acclimate, though he wanted to sleep more than he wanted to eat and even when Alain offered him a baggie of deli meat he could only nose at it.

Alain and Nathalie were experienced enough to remain human - a feat that even J.J. had yet to achieve - as the moon rolled into its full phase. It sat in the blue summer sky like a single polka dot, and he looked at it from his spot amongst the sleeping bags and blankets, the door to the tent unzipped and pulled aside so they could keep an eye on him. Leo had managed to go full wolf as well and he was able to hear him sniffing about the camp, eating his fill of deli meat and staying close, no doubt curious to see Otabek.

Mid-afternoon saw him yawning groggily and easing his way out of the tent. He felt like he was filling a new space. Not just physically but within that physical form, and he was unsteady on his big, clawed feet. When he shook himself out and stretched, he fell over twice. Nathalie tempted him around their fire pit with a handful of meat to get him walking at an easy pace, and when Leo approached him excitedly, startling him and causing him to fall over again, he let himself lay there, his tail thumping at the ground. J.J. and his siblings clambered over seemingly out of nowhere and piled atop him, whining and harping at him to play, to run about the camp with them. As if scents and smells and sounds weren’t amplified enough for him as a human over the last month, this was at least that to an exponential amount. Everything from the dirt to the other werewolves to the food in the cooler and the air itself held something new that he could identify this time and it was so much nicer than just fear, adrenaline, blood.  
They were made to wait until after dark before running about the area. The younger pups stayed back with Nathalie, finally getting a solid sleep in after bounding around for what felt like forever, while Alain made his change and followed his oldest son’s pack from a distance behind - he didn’t bother hiding his presence, reassuring them that there was back up should it be needed.

The moon shone so brightly along the sandy shores, and the sand was soft enough to give Otabek a good landing whenever he jumbled his gait and tripped himself up. They chased one another along the water for several hours - the beach deserted for the night, even as far away as the docks from what they could hear and see, spooking a deer eventually as they approached the treeline to do some digging, sniffing, and rolling among the peat and damp lichens and ferns. The pain in his muscles and joints was awfully prevalent, but after some time the ache dulled and he was really only left worrying about the still-healing bite mark on his hip and backside. The skin there pulled tight as he ran, and he was fairly certain he was running with a limp to compensate. But it was alright. It would be alright.

As Otabek wound down and settled happily in the sand near a bit of driftwood, panting, tongue lolling, J.J. joined him. He snuffled and sniffed, and bounced about on his own large, goofy paws for a bit before simply collapsing on top of him. Otabek yelped, and Leo came charging over.

Finding everything okay, he joined them as well, rolling over on his back and yawning.

Otabek asked Nathalie himself the next evening if they could do this again the following month. “Of course,” she said. “You’ve still got to get a proper hunt in before it gets cold. Summer will be over before you know it.”


End file.
